Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers Association says, tobacco output is expected to be high in both volume and quality due to the good rains that the country is receiving this cropping season.

George Seremwe, President of the Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers Association told journalists that the quality of the tobacco crop would be able to fetch top prices when the marketing season opens soon.

"This year, we have got a very good crop, the rains were good, even the dry land crop which is rain fed could be looking like the irrigated crop because the rains were quite good," he said.

Seremwe added that the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board is however still conducting a crop assessment to determine the size and volume of tobacco expected this year and some farmers are currently curing their crop, in readiness for the 2023 selling season.

Tobacco is the country's biggest agricultural export and second largest single commodity export after gold, ranking in around US$800 million in 2021 and its output has grown from 48 million kilograms in 2008 to over 200 million kilograms now, and the bulk of it is produced by small-scale resettled farmers.

Seremwe said currently, only 18 percent of the crop is grown under irrigation, and the intention is to expand to at least 40 percent.

"But the success in increasing tobacco output came at a huge environmental cost as it led to massive deforestation, especially in resettled farms.

"The TIMB and other concerned stakeholders are keenly grappling with the problem by promoting the use of fuel-efficient tobacco curing barns and renewable energy sources," he said.